72 



note, which is very sweet, and peculiarly varied, 

 may be heard before the frost has relented on the 

 banks between which the stream of its habitation 

 runs. 



" The nest is also begun early in the season, and 

 considerable labour and ingenuity are bestowed 

 upon it. It is large for the size of the bird, formed 

 of such materials as the ravine or other banks of 

 the stream furnish, covered over with a sort of 

 dome, and having an opening in the side. Tt is 

 usually placed but a little above the highest level 

 of the water, and the water is generally high from 

 the spring rains and floods about the time that it is 

 building. The angle between two fragments of 

 stone, or between an old root and the bank, is no 

 uncommon place for it. Externally it is generally 

 of moss, which the humidity of the place keeps 

 partially green, so that it looks like one of the na- 

 tural mossy tufts ; internally it is lined with more 

 dry matters, — leaves or fibres, as the situation may 

 best afford. The first brood is fledged in May ; 

 but as the birds have a perennial pasture, they have 

 two or three in the course of the season. The eggs 

 are not more than five, and of a beautiful white. 

 [There are, no doubt, exceptions ; but the eggs of 

 many birds partake of the colour which the breast 

 of the male has in the breeding season.] The 

 young Dippers grow fast, are great feeders, and are 

 incessantly chirping in the nest, in the absence of 

 the parent birds. It does not appear that the Dip- 

 per inhabits situations so high as that the rwnning 

 waters are liable to be frozen over in ordinary sea- 

 sons, though it comes farther down in the winter, 

 — not to the wide and slow rivers, however, for 

 these are apt to be close, while the brawling ones 

 are clear. A pair of Dippers with their nest are 

 given in the vignette of this volume." — Feathered 

 Tribes, Vol. I, p. 281—6. 



